Boxing rises from the ashes again as Salie loses a WBF Title challenge

Just when detractors were willing to put the final nail on the coffin of boxing it rose like the Phoenix this past weekend. Two interesting bills took place over the weekend in the outskirts of Cape Town. One took place on Friday 29 August in Parrow high school under S. Moni Productions, while the other was hosted the next day in OR Tambo Sports complex by Duma Nogaga’s promotion.

Johannes Sallie did not convince all three judges to avenge himself against George Mdluli of KZN. At the end of the day George Mdluli was crowned the WBF Pan African Junior Middleweight champion and Sallie came short. It was evident though the fight was very close as Mdluli focused on counter punching an aggressive Sallie.

Mdluli was beating Salie for the second time in his home town and Salie’s trainer on the day expressed disagreement on his facebook account that “Boxing results last night-Johannes Salie vs George Mdluli, it is unfortunate that Salie’s boxing career has been deliberately derail by boxing officials Leslie Cross and Erasmus.”

Mdluli’s fight record now stands at 8 wins and only 1 loss while Johannes Salie drops to 12 Wins and 7 loses and a draw.

Battle of DRC in Cape Town:

Main Supporting bout Jimmy Mabundga Won points UD Chriss Mugisho: The two boxers gave a very impressive fight with Chris fighting on his backfoot and the Jimmy charging and even catching Chris with huge right hands.

Return of Mpontshane:

Phila Mpontshane won TKO in Round 6/6 DumisaniTose: for some this was a question of a premature stoppage as Phila threw a huge right when the Bell was about to ring and the referee stepped in and waved a fight over. Mpontshane decided to pummel his opponent to a pulp rather than Boxing him and allowing him to enter his trap and knock him later. Other than the dog fight Mpontshane really got the time to resuscitate his career at hands of a sacrificial lamp in Tose. Tose was cut from 2nd round and boxed with a bloodied left eye throughout with his corner battling to control the cut.

In with the future and out with the old

A veteran Patrick Mandzinga was sent to school by a heavyweight prospect Herman Potgieter.Potgieter came out as a favourite to even knock a 42 year old journeyman who moved from fighting a 12 rounder in 2008 to a 4 rounder 7 years later. Herman appears to be the future of heavyweight as he is in his early 20s.

The deadly Trio

Alexander Ngambinya won points UD 4 to Bonani Ngozi, Sinethemba Bam won points UD 4 to Sive Mpongolo and Mnikelo Ndema Won points 4 to Khanyiso Skwari. If one had these fights in another venue at another time maybe the results would have been TKO wins for the 3 Cape Town boys. For that matter even the three East London Boys came to fight as they answered every question they received from the three knockout specialists.

Ndema dropped his sneaky opponent at some point but was failing to finish him while Bam dropped his much clever opponent twice in round 1 and 2. Ngambinda was let down by missing the target and elusiveness of his opponent. It was the first time this trio went the distance in their fights. They knocked out their previous opponents from their previous encounters inside the distance. Surely with good mentoring and high activity these three Boxers will rule their divisions.
Ndema now stands at 5 – 0 with 4 Knockouts, Bam 3 – 0 with 2 TKOs, and Ngambinda is 3 – 0 with 2 TKOs. Between these three Boxers they have a 80 % KO ratio.